1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and system for managing online content distribution, and more particularly, to a method and system for distributing online content while enforcing exclusivity agreements with other online content providers.
2. Description of the Related Art
The Internet, which started in the late 1960's, is a vast computer network consisting of many smaller networks that span the entire globe. The Internet has grown exponentially since its inception such that now millions of people per day connect to the Internet using both permanent and dial up connections. The computers, or networks of computers connected to the Internet, known as “hosts”, allow public access to files, documents and data covering a vast array of content such as entertainment, information for businesses and consumers and online shopping.
The content on the Internet is made available to the public through “servers”. A server is a computer system running on an Internet host that makes the server's content, typically stored on magnetic storage devices such as tape drives or fixed disks integral to the host, available to the public. An Internet server distributes the server's contents to a computer requesting the contents though often the contents will not be distributed until the requesting computer provides proof of authorization to receive the information by, for example, providing a password. The requesting computer is known as the “client”, which typically is an Internet connected workstation or home personal computer.
TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) is one networking protocol that permits full use of the Internet. All computers on a TCP/IP network need unique identification codes so that each computer or host on the Internet is identified by a unique number code, known as the IP address. The World-Wide Web (Web) is a system for accessing information on the Internet that allows a user to navigate the Internet resources intuitively, without knowledge of IP addresses or other technical information. The Web is made up of a multiplicity of Web “pages” that can be displayed on a client's computer monitor when the client's computer is running a Web browser. The Internet servers provide the Web pages from their location on the Web, known as their Web sites.
Business enterprises have found use of the Internet to be quite profitable as it allows business enterprises to reach many customers around the world. Most large companies and many small companies now have Web sites. At first these Web sites were often merely used to advertise a business enterprise's goods and services but now, many business enterprises actually sell their goods and services over the Internet. For example, a consumer may now purchase an automobile, a book, or a vacation over the Internet. An industrial customer may purchase a piece of large equipment or expensive office machines, such as copiers or computers, over the Internet. Some business enterprises have even found it profitable to merely provide a Web site for other businesses to use to sell their goods and services, providing a well advertised Web site for consumers to enter and shop for goods and services from multiple sellers.
The Internet has not, however, provided exclusivity to multiple sellers using a common Web site to offer their goods and services for sale. The concept of exclusivity is well known outside the Internet. For example, a syndicated columnist sells a column appearing daily or weekly only to newspapers or magazines having different geographical areas of distribution. A syndicated columnist selling a syndicated column to one newspaper in New York City will probably not sell the same syndicated column to another newspaper in New York City but instead, may sell the syndicated column to a newspaper in Los Angles. This practice maximizes the syndicated columnist's revenue for selling the syndicated column because the New York City newspaper is willing to pay more for the exclusive right to publish the column in the New York City area than it would be willing to pay without the exclusive geographical right of distribution. The same concept applies to a syndicated television program in the television industry.
Another example of exclusivity of distribution is the broadcasting of sporting events. If a football game is broadcast on television, the game is often blacked out, or not broadcast in the city in which the game is being played, unless all the stadium seats are sold out. This encourages fans wishing to view the game to purchase a seat at the stadium instead of staying home and watching the game on television, thereby maximizing the football team's revenue.
Yet another example of the concept of exclusivity is in the motion picture industry. If a motion picture has been released for viewing to one cable television motion picture provider, or premium channel, it is not simultaneously released to other premium channels. This practice encourages consumers to purchase more than one premium channel, which is of benefit to the motion picture industry, or to purchase only the consumer's perceived best premium channel, which is of benefit to that premium channel.